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Wayne Muller
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Wayne Muller is an ordained minister, a therapist, and
an author. A graduate
of Harvard Divinity School, he has spent the last twenty-five years working
closely with some of the most disadvantaged members of society. He is the
founder of Bread for the Journey, a
national, non-profit charity serving the
poor and underprivileged. He is also the founder of the Institute for
Engaged Spirituality, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Wayne Muller is the author of the national bestseller Legacy of the Heart:
The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood and How, Then, Shall We
Live? He has just completed a book entitled Sabbath: Remembering the
Rhythm of Rest and Delight, to be published by Bantam Doubleday Dell in
Spring 1999.
- The human spirit is naturally generous;
- when we are filled, our first impulse is to be useful,
- to be kind, to give something away.
How, Then Shall We Live:
- Four Simple Questions that Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives
1. Who Am I?
2. How Shall I Live, Knowing I Will Die?
3. What Do I Love?
4. What is My Gift to the Family of the Earth?
These simple questions have shaped the spiritual journeys of pilgrims and seekers - for thousands of years. What kind of people do we wish to be? By what star do we
- navigate our spiritual unfolding? When we meditate upon these questions, they
- reveal our true nature, the nature of our love, courage and wisdom. They allow us
- to break free, to grow beyond what we already know. We glimpse that relentless
- spark of spirit that burns within each of us.
Remember the Sabbath
- In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work
- and rest.
- All life requires a rhythm of rest. There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the
- body’s need for sleep. There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and
- night into morning. There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer
- is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter. There is a tidal rhythm,
- a deep, eternal conversation between the land and the great sea. In our bodies,
- the heart perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the
- exhale and the inhale.
- We have lost this essential rhythm. Our culture invariably supposes that action and
- accomplishment are better that rest, that doing something—anything—is better than
- doing nothing. Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these ever-growing
- expectations, we do not rest. Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the
- compass points that would show us where to go, we bypass the nourishment that
- would give us succor. We miss the quiet that would give us wisdom. We miss the joy
- and love born of effortless delight. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things
- come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly
- rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.
- In our drive for success we are seduced by the promises of more: more money, more
- recognition, more satisfaction, more love, more information, more influence, more
- possessions, more security. Even when our intentions are noble and our efforts
- sincere—even when we dedicate our lives to the service of others—the corrosive
- pressure of frantic overactivity can nonetheless cause suffering in ourselves and others.
- A "successful" life has become a violent enterprise. We make war on our own bodies,
- pushing them beyond their limits; war on our children, because we cannot find enough
- time to be with them when they are hurt and afraid, and need our company; war on
- our spirit, because we are too preoccupied to listen to the quiet voices that seek to
- nourish and refresh us; war on our communities, because we are fearfully protecting
- what we have, and do not feel safe enough to be kind and generous; war on the earth,
- because we cannot take the time to place our feet on the ground and allow it to feed us,
- to taste its blessings and give thanks.
- As the founder of a public charity, I visit the large offices of wealthy donors, the
- crowded rooms of social service agencies, and the small houses of the poorest families.
- Remarkably, within this mosaic there is a universal refrain: I am so busy. It does not
- seem to matter if the people I speak with are doctors and day-care workers,
- shopkeepers and social workers, parents or teachers, nurses and lawyers, students
- or therapists, community activists or cooks.
- Whether they are Hispanic or Native American, Caucasian or Black, the more their lives
- speed up, the more they feel hurt, frightened, and isolated. Despite their good hearts
- and equally good intentions, their work in the world rarely feels light, pleasant, or healing.
- Instead, as it all piles endlessly upon itself, the whole experience of being alive begins to
- melt into one enormous obligation. It becomes the standard greeting everywhere:
- I am so busy.
- We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a
- trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are, the
- more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable
- to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know
- that the sun has set at all), to whiz through our obligations without time for a single,
- mindful breath, this has become the model of a successful life.
- Our lack of rest and reflection is not just a personal affliction. It colors the way we
- build and sustain community, it dictates the way we respond to suffering, and it
- shapes the ways in which we seek peace and healing in the world. I have worked
- for twenty-five years in the fields of community development, public health, mental
- health, and criminal justice. With a few notable exceptions, the way problems are
- solved is frantically, desperately, reactively, and badly. Despite their well-meaning
- and generous souls, community and corporate leaders are infected with a fearful
- desperation that is corrosive to genuine helpfulness, justice, or healing. As Brother
- David Steidl-Rast reminds us, the Chinese pictograph for "busy" is composed of two
- characters: heart and killing.
- THOMAS MERTON:
- There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence.....
- [and that is] activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life
- are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.
- To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns,
- to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects,
- to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.
- The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our
- own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work,
- because it kills the root of inner wisdom which make work fruitful.
- Thank You to Wayne Muller for permission to post this writing from his new book Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest.
Also, thanks to Spiritwalker Carolyn for volunteering to type this text.
About Bread for the Journey
- Bread for the Journey is a non-profit charity serving the poor and underprivileged.
- We believe that our personal healing comes to full flower through the
healing of the
larger community to which we all belong. Bread for the Journey supports the ideas, - talents and commitments of local people through health, education and community-based
- projects that are simple, quick and helpful.
- Wayne Muller, How, Then, Shall We Live: Four Simple Questions That Reveal the Beauty
- and Meaning of Our Lives,
Wayne Muller, Legacy of the Heart: The Spiritual Advantages of a Painful Childhood
Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, April 1999
- Wayne Muller, How, Then, Shall We Live: Four Simple Questions That Reveal the Beauty
- and Meaning of Our Lives (Audio Cassette) October 1997
Wayne Muller, The Spiritual Gifts of a Painful Childhood (Audio Cassette) October 1997
Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest (Audio Cassette) March 1999
- Wayne Muller, Touching the Divine: Teachings, Meditations and Contemplations to
- Awaken Your True Nature (Audio Cassette) March 1997
Links
Bread for the Journey www.breadforthejourney.org
Institute of Noetic Sciences http://www.noetic.org/
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